In February
2001, Azerbaijan's Prime Minister, Artur Rasizade, visited Statoil's
offices and some of its oil fields and plants in Norway. Because
of Azerbaijan's recent discoveries of substantial quantities
of gas in the Shah Daniz project of which Statoil is a partner,
Azerbaijan was eager to tap into Statoil's vast experience with
gas.

Norway has exported natural gas from its continental shelf since
1977 and has made commitments to supply Europe with more than
70 billion cubic meters annually by 2005. Developing the huge
offshore gas reserves based on long-term sales contracts has
been a major element in Norway's strategy to position itself
among the leading petroleum nations in the world. Statoil has
played a key role in negotiating these contracts and in producing,
processing and transporting the contracted volumes to the markets.

During his trip, Rasizade visited Sleipner, just as President
Heydar Aliyev had done five years earlier. Sleipner is located
200 km off Norway, a key field in Norway's extensive gas production
and transportation infrastructure. Rasizade also visited the
Kårstø gas treatment plant just north of Statoil's
head office in Stavanger.

Left: Statoil's structure at Sleipner offshore
Norway which is used for gas production was recently visited
by Azerbaijani Prime Minister Artur Rasizade.

The Kårstø plant processes large volumes of natural
gas from a number of fields off Norway and sends gas to continental
Europe through large-diameter subsea pipelines. Together with
the pipelines from the giant Statoil-operated Troll gas field,
they constitute the world's largest system of subsea gas trunklines.

In addition to meeting with chief executive Olav Fjell at Statoil's
head office in Stavanger, Prime Minister Rasizade visited Oslo,
Norway's capital, where he met with Norwegian Prime Minister
Jens Stoltenberg, Petroleum and Energy Minister Olav Akselsen
and King Harald V of Norway.

Statoil has been involved in Azerbaijan since 1992 and is a partner
in the Shah Daniz, Alov-Araz-Sharg and Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli
fields. The group has also signed the initial agreement relating
to the new oil pipeline from Baku via Georgia to Ceyhan [pronounced
Jeyhan], Turkey. Statoil has worked with SOCAR and the authorities
on studies on how Azerbaijan can best develop its gas reserves
for both domestic and international markets. Statoil is also
present in Turkey and has signed a letter of intent with Turkish
KOC Holding to collaborate in the gas sector on the basis of
gas from Azerbaijan.